By resolution of the Academic Board of Russian-Armenian University David Nazarian, renowned philanthropist, investor and founder of Nîmes Capital, was awarded with The Honorary Order of Russian-Armenian University for his philanthropic leadership and exceptional generosity, outstanding commitment to support education, science and technology.

“I am happy to introduce David Nazarian to our colleagues. As a University we deeply appreciate his huge contribution to the development of education, science and technology”, said RAU Rector Professor Armen Darbinyan.

“Receiving this Order is a big honor for me. Being at Russian-Armenian University today, seeing the young people striving for knowledge and growth shows that Armenia has a great future”, highlighted David Nazarian. He also added that he saw a great potential in Armenia, given the entrepreneurial mindset and the active involvement of the Armenian youth.

After achieving considerable success in business, David Nazarian realized that he wanted to give back to the community and become involved in higher education. Today, he is member of Board of Directors of several colleges and donates to schools and universities together with his wife. In 2014, he made a charitable contribution of $10 million to his alma mater California State University, Northridge. David Nazarian also leads a campaign to fundraise $15 million, additionally. As a result, the CSUN David Nazarian College of Business and Economics was named in his honor. David Nazarian himself considers it to be his “biggest achievement”.

He also shared his vision of the future of education, given the rapidly changing labor market. “For the last few hundred years, the education system has been the same - you go to the class, take a test and then come out. Considering the future of the workforce, things are changing very fast. The jobs are changing faster. So, how should we prepare our students so that they get the right education and are productive? There is no easy answer to it. Here is what I am thinking – the machines and artificial intelligence are taking the jobs that machines can do. What universities can do is to introduce a multidisciplinary approach as much as possible. If graduates of Business know only about business and later they need to work with engineering or psychology, they will find that the specialization is too narrow. What we do at CSUN College of Business and Economics, we try to organize the education in such a way that students from different backgrounds work together as much as possible. We also keep in mind that five years from now the situation will change and in five years after that. We, as educators, need to think about how students are going to survive in a society that is constantly changing and be ready to adapt”, he said.